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Friday, June 20, 2014

green pastures and the valley

Our landlord didn't open the news story predicting declining rental costs and raised our rent by a couple thousand dollars. The knee jerk reaction was to look for a new abode but then SB and I talked it out and concluded that though there are greener pastures, we are not ready to move at this time. While we still highly enjoy our neighborhood and our neighbors, the smallness of our home is starting to become a concern. We now have two pups sharing the space, though that really isn't a problem considering that they seem to prefer being wherever we are, unlike teenage humans who want to be anywhere but near their parents. The bigger problem is that we have now been in Hong Kong for over six years and one of us (SB) is a natural pack rat who, despite my vigilant oversight, has managed to accumulate all sorts of stuff. He put his overly large hoof down when I attempted to weed out some of the previous stuff that he had picked up. The inflatable hands from Sevens two years past should be given to someone's child and not tossed into a collection bin. The free t-shirts from the hockey/lacrosse/rugby tournaments are all going to be worn at some point once those t-shirts from boarding school (twenty plus years ago) eventually totally disintegrate. You get the picture.

So we are staying in our small flat, along with our dogs and our stuff. But one day soon this will change. We will either have to find a larger place in the valley, probably for a bit more rent, or we will move to a neighborhood that is more affordable. We noticed some homes in the New Territories that will provide almost twice the size of our flat AND a rooftop or terrace for a lot less than we are paying in our convenient location. Of course, I will still have to check these places out to ascertain dog friendliness and the like. Do any of my readers live in areas where there are places for dogs to play and socialize, and yet not a nightmare for using public transportation to get to work on the island?